Review: Street Freaks

Street Freaks Street Freaks by Terry Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

*eARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley.

I enjoyed this. It was certainly different than any Terry Brooks that I’d read before, and I’ve read a lot of Terry Brooks. Loyal fans will probably like this as his storytelling quality is there, even if we’re looking at a dystopian future instead of epic fantasy. It appeals to all age groups, being friendly in tone to younger readers, but mature enough in content for older ones as well. Because the main hero and majority of the characters are teens, this would work well as being categorized YA, but it’s a good story regardless.

The pacing and plot are pretty good overall, but there are a couple of plot points that didn’t make a lot of sense. The overall story was fine, but some of the hidden motivations with the “adults” in the story weren’t clear. Maybe they weren’t supposed to be, but it made for a distracting feeling as I came to the end. The ending itself felt pretty good, but these odd tidbits hung with me.

Will this be a series? Had to imagine anything from Terry Brooks that isn’t, but the book could stand alone. It could also see expansion, both in continuation of threads left open here and in other stories set in this future “United Territories”. Either way, I’d be interested in seeing what will come out, if anything.


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